MAKE Hanukkah: A Jewish Maker Summit

_This event was originally scheduled for November 18 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum but was cancelled due to the poor air quality from the Camp Fire in Northern California. We are thrilled to offer most of the original program on the 7th day of Hanukkah._ -------------------------   Experience the thrill of unexpected discoveries, the focused energy from working with a chevrutah (study/creation partner), and the joy of learning about Hanukkah in personal, tangible ways. Choose 1 of 4 concurrent MAKER SESSIONS, each designed and facilitated by a team of a master educator and an expert MAKER. Workshops offer a constellation of themes related to the spiritual opportunities of Hanukkah (or challenges presented by the holiday). Each session will weave together Jewish sources and art making in light of shared existential questions of meaning that require all of our unique perspectives.  Open to all adults and young adults (ages 10 and up) and requiring no prior background in text study or art making, this is an opportunity to develop your own richly informed understanding of the holiday of Hanukkah and bring home a personal creation that will deepen and enliven your Hanukkah experience. EDUCATOR/MAKER TEACHING TEAM (CHOOSE 1 OF 4 CONCURRENT MAKER SESSIONS) Ariel Mayse and Adina Polen Aliza Weiss and Yosef Rosen Nathan Kuchar and Peretz Wolf-Prusan Deena Aranoff and Daniel Barash WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS: 1. A NEW SPIN ON DREIDLE: BREAKING AND REMAKING AN OLD GAME with Natan Kuchar and Peretz Wolf-Prusan Abraham Joshua Heschel encourages us to face the world from a stance of radical amazement. We'll investigate Heschel's concepts of radical amazement and wonder, and apply those to create unique dreidle game play surfaces. Constructed with collaged textures, text, photos, mixed media, these will serve as both a reflective artistic creation and a useable (foldable) board that elevates a holiday amusement to a shared activity that promotes dialogue, connection and reflection in community. This board ultimately disrupts the narrative we have heard in the past about the dreidle game, and encourages behaviors that are the reversal of the losing/winning goals the traditional game incites. 2. ON THE SPIRITUALITY OF DESCENT with Yosef Rosen and Aliza Weiss To explore the Hanukkah theme of "we ascend in holiness and we do not descend in holiness" we will look at mystical texts that navigate the value of making occasional "descents," where we embrace the difficult parts of ourselves and the world around us. We will then explore the kinetics and mechanics of descent & ascent by making zoetropes. This will be a chance to integrate our mind, heart, and hands! 3. FLICKERING CANDLES: RECASTING THE HANUKKAH STORY THROUGH SHADOW PUPPETRY with Deena Aranoff and Daniel Barash This workshop will explore the many ways of telling the Hanukkah story. We will dive into the living art of story-telling and the living symbolism of the Jewish holidays themselves. We will begin with an exploration of the four paradigmatic modes in which the Hanukkah tale is often told. We will then create shadow puppets to bring your version of the Hanukkah story "to life" on the shadow puppet screen. Participants will come away from the workshop with a new kind of storytelling practice that can become part of family holiday celebrations for years to come. See you in the land of stories and shadows! 4. RADIATING LIGHT with Ariel Mayse and Adina Polen Through selected Hasidic texts, and creating papercut projection boxes, we will focus on the illumination of the menorah as embodying the "hidden light" of creation described in Jewish traditions, considering how this light can reveal the hidden miracles concealed in the ordinary world, and in ourselves. Thinking about the mitsvah of pirsumei nissa, of publicizing the miracle of Hanukkah and making it known to others, we will then consider how our inner qualities do -- or do not -- radiate outward into the public sphere as radical expressions of love and courage. Such reflections, embodied in our projection sculptures, will guide us to become storytellers and shapers of history through the act of making,. _Co-presented by LEHRHAUS JUDAICA (lehrhaus.org [http://www.lehrhaus.org]) and Atiq: A JEWISH MAKER INSTITUTE (atiqmakers.org [http://atiqmakers.org/])_